I am currently an MRes student at STOR-i, and I was thinking about the possible career path (either industry or academia) since we have to choose either strategic or industry PhD projects. Last week, I attended an online career event in stats held by Biometrika, discussing the possible career path for a PhD student. That reminds me of a recent popular question: Is it a failure for a PhD to work in the industry after graduation? Most people think it is a shame that PhD students do not continue to work in academia after spending several years obtaining a PhD degree, and they could not back to academia without research.
This reminds me of the reason why I attend the STOR-i programme is the close incorporation with industries. As we know, stats is a very applicable discipline. That is why I like stats since stats could directly impact our daily life, such as detecting changepoint, predicting the earthquake by extreme value theory, testing the efficiency of the clinical methods or drugs, etc. And STOR-i programmes will allow me to directly work with the company to solve real-world problems after I finish the first MRes year :). Naturally, my career plan is to work in the industry after graduation (but maybe change my idea afterwards).
Working in the industry doesn’t mean no publication
Prof. Tawn Jonathan said most PhD went to the industry due to the direct effect of their work and they still have publications in the industry. When I wrote my research report on Thompson sampling, I found the Microsoft research sectors published several famous papers. It seems reasonable since industries also need creativity, and they could find real-world open questions easily. So, working in the industry does not equal no research.
Working in the industry doesn’t mean no way return to academia
Besides, it is also possible to return to academia from industry but on different routes. The possible normal route for academia is PhD – Post Doc – Lecturer – Senior Lecturer – Reader/Professor. The possible route for academia returning from industry is PhD – Industry – Lecturer – etc. Thus, people working in the industries could also back to academia.
Working in industry project doesn’t mean no theoretical development
Originally I thought the industry project might be applicable and no theoretical development. When I met with possible supervisors, they said we have to develop a new method based on the questions provided by the companies. So, we are not working as employees of their company doing similar and regular works. Indeed we have to create a new methodology, new algorithm or new theory!! Just like other academic projects. Besides, the research scope is not fixed like the company asks us to solve a typical question. Usually, the scope is flexible enough and allow us to boost both academic and industry development at the same time.
As a result, working in the industry doesn’t mean the end of academia. And it allows you to see the direct impact. Now I am much clear about my path and hope this blog could help you if you have similar questions.